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John Sherman 



By George U. Harn 



Reprinted from Ohio Stair Archaeological 
and Historical Societv Publications 
Volume 17, No. 3, 19U8 



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PRKSENTIil) l:Y 



JOHN SHERMAN 



BY 



George U. Harn 



Columbus, Ohio : 

The F. J. Heer Printing Co. 

1908 



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Author 
(Perton) 



JOHN SHERMAN. 



GEORGE U. HARN. 

[Mr. Harn is a native Ohioan, having been bori at Wooster where 
he was trained in the printing and journalistic profession. When a mere 
lad he became the Columbus correspondent for the Cincinnati Times- 
Chronicle, now the Times-Star. Later he became one of the owners of 
the Mansfield Herald, with the business and editorial control of which 
he was connected for many, years. Under President McKinley Mr. Harn 
was agent of the United States Internal Revenue Commission in Ohio 
and several southern states. Early in life Mr. Harn became acquainted 
with John Sherman, this acquaintance grew into an intimate friendship 
that lasted till the death of the Senator. Mr. Harn's article is unique 
in manner and gives some interesting side-lights upon the character of 
the great statesman and financier. — Editor.] 

John Sherman was a Senator in Congress a longer time than 
any other person. He was elected to the Senate a greater num- 
ber of times than any other 
person. Without excepting 
Thomas Hart Benton, he was 
a member of the senate 
longer than any other person. 
Benton was elected five con- 
secutive times, but served a 
few days less than thirty 
years. Sherman was in at- 
tendance at the sessions of 
the Senate a greater number 
of days than any other per- 
son. He voted on a larger 
number of proposed federal 
laws than any other person. 
He attended the daily ses- 

T „ sions of the upper chamber 

JoHxV Sherman. ,.,.,, : 

as dutifully as the ambitious 

school boy attended school; his absence excited query and com- 
ment. 




(3) 



4 John Sherman. 

He was a representative in Congress under the administra- 
tion of two presidents, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Buchanan ; a Senator 
under seven, Lincoln, Johnson, Grant, Garfield, Arthur, Cleve- 
land and Harrison. 

He was a candidate for public trust before the people four 
times, always successful ; before the General Assembly of his 
native State six times, ever victorious. His long, eventful, useful 
and distinguished career would have been endorsed by the 
Legislature of Ohio by his election in 1898 to the Senate for the 
seventh time. 

As the nominee of his party he was never defeated. 
* * * * 

John Sherman's paternal ancestors were public men, leaders 
of the people, statesmen, jurists. 

They came from England, from Essex, to Connecticut and 
Massachusetts, long before liberty bell proclaimed the birth of 
another nation. Taylor Sherman, his grandfather, was a lawyer 
and a judge. Charles Robert Sherman, his father, followed in 
his footsteps. And John, the brother of the great General, was a 
common pleas judge, pro tempore, in northern Ohio, before he 
had attained his twenty-eighth year of age. 

Taylor Sherman was a native of Norwalk, Connecticut. His 
wife, Elizabeth Stoddard, was a descendant of Anthony Stoddard, 
who emigrated from England to Boston in 1639. She died in 
Ohio in 1848. 

Charles Robert Sherman, the father of John Sherman, was 
born at Norwalk, Conn., studied law with his father, was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1810, and the same year married Mary Tloyt, 
also of Norwalk, and a few months thereafter came to Ohio and 
located at Lancaster, where John Sherman and all his brothers 
and sisters, except the eldest, Charles T. Sherman, were born. He 
was elected a Supreme Judge of the State of Ohio in January, 
1823, when but thirty-five years old. He died suddenly at Le- 
banon on the 24th of June, 1829, while holding a term of court, 
aged forty-one years. He left a family of eleven children, the 
youngest an infant a month old, the oldest, Charles T., aged 
eighteen. Judge Sherman'- household was in decidedly strait- 
ened circumstances. 



John Sherman. .> 

Thomas Ewing, who lived at Lancaster, a distinguished 
citizen of the state, but not until two years later a member of the 
Senate, luckily, was a friend of the Shermans. He adopted the 
third son. William Tecumseh, and procured his appointment as 
a cadet at West Point. 

The eighth child, John, was six years old. A cousin of his 
father, named John Sherman, then recently married, a merchant 
at Mt. Vernon, took the fatherless boy home with him in 183 1, 




Mansfield Residence of John Sherman. Now Demolished. 

where he remained four war- at school. At the age of twelve he 
returned to Lancaster and became a pupil for two years at Howe's 
academy, at the end of, which time he was prepared to enter the 
sophomore class at college. But his mother was unable to gratify 
hi- ambition to acquire a thorough and systematic education, and 
in 1837 he was compelled to accept the position, tendered him, 
through the efforts of his brother Charles, by Colonel Curtis, of 
junior rodman on the Muskingum Canal improvement. In the 
following spring the officer in charge of the work at the station 



(5 John Sherman. 

where the young man was employed resigned, and he was tem- 
porarily placed in charge, assuming a grave responsibility grow- 
ing out of the construction of a work which was to cost $300,000. 

In the autumn of 1838 the Whig party was thrown out of 
power. A new Board of Public Works took charge of the im- 
provement. Young Sherman was 16 years old. He was a Whig. 
His services were dispensed with. Andrew Jackson had given 
way to Martin Van Buren the year before. The American doc- 
trine that to the victors belong the spoils was enforced. 

John Sherman began the study of law in the office of his 
brother Charles T., at Mansfield, Ohio, when he was exactly 19 
years old. He was admitted to practice May nth, 1844, just 
after attaining his majority. 

Mansfield was a village of about 1,100 inhabitants, the seat 
of Richland County, always reliably Democratic. The bar was 
able and distinguished. Among its members were Thomas W. 
Bartley, at that time Governor of Ohio, later a Judge of the 
Supreme Court, who was succeeded in the gubernatorial chair by 
his father, Mordecai Bartley ; Jacob Brinkerhoff, a Judge of the 
Supreme Court, and eminent as a member of Congress ; and 
others almost as well known. 

On the list of law students were the names of William B. 
Allison, the Senator from Iowa, and the late Samuel J. Kirk- 
wood, a federal cabinet officer and Governor of the State of 
Iowa. 

During the ten years following young Sherman's admis- 
sion to the bar he was active in the general practice as partner 
of his brother Charles, and at the same time took a deep interest 
in the political issues of the day. He found leisure, also, to en- 
gage in several financial ventures not connected with the law. 
One of them was the making and publication of a map of what 
was then Richland County. This he compiled from observations, 
his own surveys and search of the records. Many of the details, 
such as the source and course of the streams, he personally veri- 
fied. He took the drawing to Pittsburg and had it lithographed. 
He expected great returns from its sales, as a well known de- 
ceased railroad operator did from the sales of a rat-trap. The 



John Sherman. 7 

results were similar. That map is one of the rare relics of the 
present day. 

In 1848 he attended the Philadelphia convention as a dele- 
gate from his Congressional District. When the Convention was 
being organized a member arose and said that there was a young 
man present from a district so strongly Democratic that he could 
never hope to get office unless the convention gave him one, and, 

"I, therefore, move," he said, "that John Sherman, from 'the 
Berks County District of Ohio, be made secretary of this con- 
vention." 

A delegate from farther West immediately jumped to his feet 
and said that there was a young man present from the State of 
Indiana in precisely the same situation, and, 

"I move to amend so that Schuyler Colfax be made assistant 
secretary of this convention." 

Together, Sherman and Colfax walked up to the stand. 

Mr. Sherman was elected a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives in October, 1854, when he was 31 years old. The 
Thirteenth District was composed of the Counties of Erie, Huron, 
Morrow and Richland. It had previously been represented by a 
Democrat, Gen. William D. Lindsley, of Erie. At the election 
of 1852 three tickets had been voted for. The convention which 
nominated Sherman was known as the Anti-Nebraska conven- 
tion. It was composed of members of the Democratic, the 
Whig and the Free Soil parties. It was held at W r ilson's hall, at 
the village of .Shelby. There were three leading candidates, Hon. 
Joseph M. Root, of Erie, who had already served three terms in 
the House, and subsequently served in the Ohio House of Repre- 
sentatives ; Gov. Tom Ford, and John Sherman, both of Richland. 
A number of gentlemen, who subsequently became nationally 
known, were delegates to the convention. Gen. John W. Sprague, 
some years afterwards a potent factor in the politics of Washing- 
ton territory, was a member. Great difficulty was experienced 
in harmonizing the several elements, but the result finally was 
the withdrawal of . Ford, which cleared the atmosphere, and 
brought about the nomination of Sherman. 

At the election he received 8,617 votes, whereas Lindsley 
got 5,974. It is noticeable that Erie, Huron and Morrow there- 



8 



John Sherman. 



after remained in the Republican columns, while Richland then, 
as now, was one of the strongholds of Democracy. 

On July 13th, 1855, at Columbus, the first Ohio Republican 
convention was held. It nominated Salmon P. Chase for Gov- 
ernor. That was, substantially, the beginning of the Republican 
party of the nation. 

On May 28th, 1895, at Zanesville, another Republican con- 
vention was held. It endorsed William McKinley for President. 
John Sherman was president of the first, and president of the last. 





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Library In Mansfield Residence o£ John Sherman. 

Mr. Sherman took his seat in the House December 3rd, [855. 
He forthwith became a leader in that body, and it was greatly 
through his influence that Gen. Bank- was made Speaker of the 
Thirty-fourth Congress. Unexpectedly, in March of the year fol- 
lowing, he was appointed a member of the Kansas investigating 
committee. When he received the telegram advising him of his ap- 
pointment he was en route from Mansfield to Washington. With- 
out completing his journey he returned to his home, and a few 
hours afterward was on his way to Kansas. The o > nmittee heard 
testimony at Lawrence, Leavenworth, Lecompton and Topeka. 



John Sherman. 9 

Circumstances caused the writing of the report to devolve upon 
Mr. Sherman, and the report, when made public, intensified the 
antagonism in Congress, and was the basis of the Presidential 
campaig n of 1856. His experiences and observations in Kansas 
fortified him in the position he had assumed on the paramount 
questions of the day. 

Mr. Sherman was nominated, without opposition, and elected 
to Congress from the same district in 1856, 1858 and i860. At 
the close of his second term in a body then having 237 members, 
a large majority of them being representative men, in all senses 
of the word, he was recognized as the foremost man in the House. 
The Thirty-sixth Congress began its first session amid the ex- 
citement caused by the bold act of John Brown at Harper's Ferry. 
-Mr. Sherman was a candidate for speaker. After eight weeks' 
struggle, when within three votes of election, he gave way and 
Mr. Pennington, of Xew Jersey, was chosen. Helper's Impend- 
ing Crisis was the cause of his defeat. He then became chair- 
man of the Committee on Ways and Means. 

In the autumn of 18G0 Mr. Sherman had been elected to 
Congress the fourth time, his fourth term extending from March, 
1861, to March, 1863. William Dennison had been elected Gov- 
ernor of Ohio to succeed Salmon P. Chase, and assumed the office 
on January <;th, [860. In the same month, Mr. Chase, who had 
been a Senator from Ohio from 1849 to 1855, had again been 
elected to the Senate as the colleague of Benjamin F. Wade, to 
succeed George E. Pugh, from the fourth of March, 1861. On 
his inauguration President Lincoln appointed Chase his Secretary 
of the Treasury. On the T2th of March, Governor Dennison 
notified the Ohio General Assembly, still in session, of the resig- 
nation of Chase as Senator, whereupon the Legislature pro- 
ceeded to elect his successor. 

Sherman remained at Washington. On the first day's bal- 
loting it w-as found that he had a majority over Governor Den- 
nison, Gen. Robert C. Schenck and John A. Bingham. The 
caucus, however, was feverish. Without authority Sherman's 
name was suddenly withdrawn, but almost immediately again 
presented. He was finally chosen as the choice of the Republi- 
cans. On the joint vote of the Assembly the vote stood: Sher- 



10 John Sherman. 

man, 76; William Kennon, Jr., 53 votes. Kennon had been a 
member of Congress in 1847-9 from the Belmont County Dis- 
trict. 

Mr. Sherman took his seat in the Senate for the first time 
on March 23rd, 1861. Thus he was in the same hour a member 
of the House and a member of the Senate. 

Subsequently Gen. Garfield became a Senator while a mem- 
ber of the House, and President while a Senator. 

On January 18th, 1866, Mr. Sherman was elected for six 
years from March 4th, 1867. Sherman had 91, and Allen G. 
Thurman 41 votes. 

In January, 1872, he was elected for six wars from March 
4th, 1873. Sherman had 73 votes. Gen. Geo. W. Morgan 59, 
Gen. J. D. Cox 6, A. F. Perry I, Gen. R. C. Schenck 1. 

Mr. Sherman resigned the Senatorship March 5th, 1877. and 
became Secretary of the Treasury in President Hayes' cabinet. 
Hon. Stanley Mathews, Republican, was selected his successor 
for the unexpired portion of the term. 

Sherman was re-elected to the Senate for six years from the 
4th of March, 1881 ; re-elected for six years from March 4th, 
1887; and re-elected for six years from March 4th, 1893. His 
last term would have expired March 4th, 1899, an( l there has 
been no good, reason to believe he would not have been elected for 
the seventh time, had the course of events been other than as they 
occurred in 1897. 

He, therefore, was elected to the House for eight years and 
served about six ; was a member of the cabinet four years ; and 
was elected to the Senate for 36 years and served 31 years, 11 
months and 12 days. Counting the period he acted as Secretary 
of State in President McKinley's cabinet, he was in public life in 
four different offices almost 43 years. 

Our hostile friends have repeatedly pointed out the undis- 
puted fact that during a period of thirty years of stewardship in 
the most dignified legislative body, his colleague, for more than 
three-fourths of that time, had been a Democrat. When we 
consider that the State of Ohio ten times in succession has cast, 
except in 1892, when one of the 21 electors, James P. Seward. 



John Sherman. 11 

of Richland County, voted for Grover Cleveland, a solid Re- 
publican electoral vote, this fact is the more singular. 

When Mr. Sherman went to Washington as a Senator his 
colleague was that other great man, Benjamin F. Wade, who was 
thrice honored. In 1868 the Ohio Legislature was Democratic. 
It elected Allen G. Thurman as Mr. Wade's successor. Six years' 
later. Mr. Thurman was re-elected. Then Hon. George H. Pen- 
dleton, of Cincinnati; Hon. Henry B. Payne, of Cleveland, and 
the Hon. Calvin S. Brice, of Lima, each serving a single term, 
became the great financier's colleagues. And it was in the even- 
ing of his life that for the first time, except in the case of Wade, 
that his colleague was of the same political faith, namely, Joseph 
Benson Foraker. 

Looking backward, to the dawn of the century — what a 
noble list of stalwart statesmen has the Heart of the Nation given 
to the Senate. 

With the exception of Judge Stanley Mathews, who 
served out Mr. Sherman's term, while he was Secretary of the 
Treasury, no other Republican, except Foraker, Hanna and 
Dick, has represented Ohio in the Senate since Wade retired. 

Senator Sherman enjoyed the most distinguished honors that 
the Mouse could confer, except that of Speaker; he had been 
chairman of the most important committees in the Senate, as well 
as I 'resident pro tempore; he was then at the head of the greatest 
department of the government, as Secretary of the Treasury, a 
posl of more vital import to the whole people at that time than 
that of premier. Therefore his ambition to end a long public 
life as the chief magistrate of the nation was certainly not repre- 
hensible. We are familiar with the result of that contest; with 
the dramatic nomination, the election, and the untimely taking 
<>\~\ of the lamented Garfield. 

His friends made a second effort in his behalf and failed. 
From that day he put wholly out of his mind all Presidential 
aspirations, yet there are not a few who will ever regret that he 
was unsuccessful. 

What might have been the course of events had he been 
nominated in 1888? 

In the light of events, it was clearly the mistake of Sher- 



12 John Sherman. 

man's life for him to accept a place in McKinley's cabinet. He 
should have served out his term in the Senate and then retired. 
I personally know that at least one close friend advised him to 
that effect. From the moment he entered the cabinet his ir- 
ritability was remarked by his life-long' friends — by those who 
had no favors to ask and by those who had. The position of chief 
clerk to an aggressive executive could not be other than, to say 
the least, irksome ; in this case the more so because of the fact 
that the latter had been inspired by the former, and, in a manner, 
had fallen heir to his mantle. Sherman had always held that the 
function of members of the cabinet was more than that of 
supervising clerks, and his theory was illustrated when he served 
as Secretary of the Treasury tinder President Hayes. In fact, 
when Cleveland was President. Mr. Sherman one day remarked 
to me that he would not act as a member of the cabinet under 
Cleveland because the members were "mere clerks." 

Throughout his life Mr. Sherman was able to recognize 
faces, but often unable to recall names. Many who approached 
him for favors which were not his to bestow, in the last days of 
his greatness, seized upon this increasing failing and magnified it 
into something worse, until the public grew to believe that he 
was no longer the semblance of his earlier self. Up and until the 
last he made no promises, outright or by inference, that he did 
not keep. This rule now seems to be old-fashioned and out of 
date. 

Mr. Sherman's public life was consistent and pure. Most 
public men find it necessary to modify their views as time passes. 
His vote was found on the side of what was at the time at least 
the plurality, and has since become the majority, on the great 
questions that have been settled during the last five decades in 
our country's history. 

As far back as 1856, in a debate on the submarine telegraph, 
opposing the granting of a monopoly to the corporation, he said : 

"I can not agree that our government should be bound by 
any contract with any private incorporated company for fifty 
years." . 



John Sherman. 13 

Forty years later his bill to regulate trusts voiced the same 
sentiments. 

While speaking on the tariff bill he said : 

"The addition to the free list should be of articles not pro- 
duced in this country, and whose free importation will not com- 
pete in any way with the great interests of any section of this 
country." 

In his Zanesville speech, delivered in May, 1895, he iterated 
his views thus: 

"We prefer to tax foreign productions rather than our own. 
We believe that the policy of protection should be extended to all 
productions impartially, to labor on the farm as well as in the 
workshops. We are opposed to the policy of protecting woolen 
manufactures and admitting wool free." 

He was always opposed to any form of internal taxation for 
government purposes, except as a war measure. The pension list 
is a legacy of war. Internal revenues should be especially de- 
voted to the payment of pensions. 

In 1862 he favored a war tax "upon consumption and pro- 
duction rather than upon persons and property/ 5 In 1894 he bad 
not changed his mind, as is evidenced by his opposition to the 

income tax. 

* * * * 

In the spring of 1870. while Mr. Sherman was Secretary of 
the Treasur) : 1 locratic press of Ohio, sought to influence 

public sentiment with a view of accomplishing his nomination 
for Governor of the State. At that time it was generally under- 
stood that he was a candidate for the presidency, and the object 
of the movement was to check his growing national popularity 
by an attempt, at least, to procure his defeat at the gubernatorial 
elections. Suddenly Mr. Sherman arrived at Mansfield. He 
came alone, and unannounced. His family had departed a few 
days prior for Europe. 

His presence at bis home quickly became known, and the 
leading citizens, without regard to party, decided upon a sere- 
nade. 

About midday newspaper correspondents from nearby cities 
dropped into .Mansfield, among them a plenipotentiary from a 



14 



John Sherman. 



leading Cincinnati journal, with whom the writer had some 
acquaintance. He wanted a verbatim report of the expected 
speech, but could not write stenography. Finally a shorthand 
writer in the person of a young man, the private secretary of a 
leading manufacturer, the late Michael D. Harter, was discovered 
and employed. 

At night-fall the band, followed and preceded, by hundreds 
of people, proceeded to Mr. Sherman's hotel. The committee on 
arrangements had procured a store box and placed it on the ban- 




Library in Washington Residence of John Sherman. 

quette at the hotel, to be used as a speaking platform. Mean- 
time the stenographer had been stationed in the hallway of the 
ladies' entrance to the hotel, and the press congratulated itself 
that il had the affair well in hand. 

In answer to calls from the people Mr. Sherman soon ap- 
peared accompanied by a citizen, who mounted the improvised 
rostrum, and went through the formality of an introduction of 
our distinguished townsman. It was evident that the Secretary 
of the Treasury was more or less surprised, and greatly pleased, 
with the spontaneous and enthusiastic ovation. 



John Sherman. 15 

He began his remarks thus : 

"My Countrymen" — 

It is noticeable in nearly all of Mr. Sherman's speeches from 
the stump, that he used the words "my countrymen" when ad- 
dressing his hearers. And then continued : 

"I am very happy to be again in your midst, to see your 
faces, and to greet you as friends. I never felt like making an 
apology for coming before you until now. I found when I ar- 
rived in my old home the papers said I came West seeking the 
nomination for Governor. I came purely on private business, to 
repair ruined fences, and look after impaired property," and then 
he forthwith entered into an explanation of the financial policy 
of the administration. 

The speaking exercises having been finished, the correspond- 
ents and the stenographer rushed to the telegraph office, where the 
stenographer for an hour or more wrestled with his notes, and 
at last announced that he was unable to intelligibly translate them, 
whereupon the writer sat down, and with the help of those 
present, recorded what the speaker had said. The phrase about 
"repairing ruined fences" was pounced upon by the press of the 
country, and to the presenl day it turns up constantly upon every 
hand. 

Mr. Sherman then told the literal truth. Fences were being 
built on the Stewart farm, half a mile east of the town, a farm 
inherited from her father by Mrs. Sherman, as well as on Mr. 
Sherman's farm, now within the corporation limits, and now 
mostly laid out in residence lots. 

It may be interesting to follow the evolutions of this fence 
repairing incident. A year later, on March 31st, 1880, when Mr. 
Sherman's chances for the Presidential nomination were thought 
to be good, on his annual return to his home, he was greeted by 
perhaps ten thousand people, hundreds of them strangers, from 
Ohio and other states. The event was grand and one long to be 
remembered. He spoke on the same spot, and from a similarly 
improvised platform. His opening remarks were as follows: 

"Fellow Citizens and Fellow Townsmen : — I noticed in com- 
ing here that some of the papers are discussing why I came to 
Mansfield. When, a year ago, I visited you, I innocently said 



16 John Sherman. 

I came to repair my fences. That was the simple truth ; but 
thanks to my very good friend here before me, Mr. Knight (hi; 
farmer), my fences are in very good repair." 

And they remained in good repair. 

The writer is informed that Mr. Sherman recounts this in- 
cident in his book. He never read the book and hence is not 
posted on his version of the affair. The foregoing is a statement 
of fact, which would be verified by the late Chauncev Newton, 
were he alive. 

This "political classicism," as Mr. Howells, of the Ashtabula 
Sentinel, calls it, has become of world-wide note, and is used al- 
most as frequently in Great Britain and elsewhere, especially 
where English is spoken, as here. 

* * * * 

One evening, years ago, I went up to the Sherman house on 
an errand. I did not expect to meet strangers there. To my 
surprise when ushered into the library I found a member of th< 
President's cabinet, a distinguished member of Congress, who 
afterwards became the Governor of 'a great State, and later a still 
more eminent national figure ; the chairman of a State com- 
mittee, who had won two victories; and a candidate on the 
State ticket*. My impulse was to withdraw, but I was prevailed 
upon to remain. The conversation, momentarily interrupted by 
my entrance, was resumed, when 1 discovered the subject under 
discussion was the -election of a State Executive Committee. It 
had been customary in Ohio for years for the Republican State 
convention to designate, by Congressional Districts, the several 
members of the State Central Committee, and for the candidates 
on the State ticket to submit to this committee a list of names 
from which to select the Executive Committee. 

The member of the cabinet proposed this name and that ; the 
chairman of the committee suggested this person and that person ; 
the candidate for a State office thoughl this gentleman and that 
one especially available, and so on ; and the gubernatorial aspirant 
finally wanted to know what the functions of the Executive Com- 
mittee were, anyway, which the cabinet officer explained. The 

*Foster, McKinley, Hahn, etc. 



John Sherman. 17 

merits, and the demerits, of the several gentlemen whose names 
had been proposed, their geographical location; their political 
prestige, availability, fitness, and-so-forth, were pretty generally,' 
and unsparingly, and with the cheerful frankness said to be com- 
mon at sewing circles, criticised and canvassed. 

During all of this interesting four-cornered conversation the 
host spoke scarcely a word. He smoked a pretty good cigar 
and seemed to get a great deal of satisfaction out' of it. They 
all smoked, and they all talked — except the host. 

Presently it seemingly suddenly dawned upon the subsequent 
Governor and President that the head of the party of the State 
had made no suggestions, whereupon he interrogatively said: 

"Senator, by the way, you have proposed no one for this 
committee. You, I presume, will be a candidate before the next 
Legislature for election to the Senate. It is right, and proper, 
that your wishes, as to the personnel of the committee, should be 
considered. Who do you want to become members of it?" 
The Senator replied : 

"Oh. never mind about me. I have made it a rule during 
my entire public career to never propose, or care, who should 
serve on committees of this character. Besides that, my idea is 
that we are about to try to elect a Legislature and a State ticket, 
and not a United States Senator. The election of a Senator will 
occur next January." 
That was all. 

The next day the opposition press contained scare headlines, 
followed by columns of leaded type, graphically telling how John 
Sherman had again thrown his opponents and declaring that he- 
was again on top! 

* * * * 

There seemed to exist between William Tecumseh. in the 
family fondly called "Cump," up to the hour of his death, and 
John, a stronger love than between the other brothers This 
was perhaps because the lines of these two men ran more in 
similar orbits. From a very early time, from their struggling 
boyhood days, they carried on a correspondence, down to the 
death of the General, and the soldier was a guest at the home of 
the statesman often, and as frequently as the public and privav- 



IS John Sherman. 

demands upon his time would permit. This correspondence, 
through a period of more than a half century, has heen preserved, 
arranged in proper order, bound in book form, and was kept in a 
fireproof vault at the Mansfield house, and a part of it only has 
appeared in print. 

General Sherman once said, in reply to a request to deliver 
a lecture under the patronage of a lyceum bureau, that he would 
not do so for a fee of a thousand dollars. The Senator was al- 
ways of the same mind. While he had ever been ready to speak 
for the benefit of his party, or to the veterans of the Sherman 
brigade, an organization winch he was chiefly instrumental in 
raising and equipping at the breaking out of the war, and by 
which he was honored annually by being elected its presiding 
officer, the occasion cannot be called to mind on which he de- 
livered a speech for pay, at least since he ceased the practice of 
law prior to the beginning of the war. 

* * * * 

John Sherman and Miss M. S. Cecilia Stewart were married 
at Mansfield on the 31st of August, 1848. She was the only 
child of the late Judge Stewart, of Mansfield, who immigrated to 
Ohio from Pennsylvania. They never had children. They 
adopted a friendless little girl who grew to womanhood and was 
married to an estimable gentleman at the Federal Capitol some 
years since. There was seldom a day since they began house- 
keeping when the home in Ohio, or that at Washington, was not 
brightened by one or more of their numerous nephews or nieces. 
Years ago Mrs. Gen. Miles and Mrs. Senator Don. Cameron, 
daughters of Judge Charles T. Sherman, and later the General's 
sons and daughters, or the children of Mr. Sherman's other sisters 
and brothers, were always welcome. 

Mrs. Sherman was the ideal wife of a great man. It cannot 
be remembered that she ever interested herself to her husband's 
detriment in affairs of State. She was a lady of rare accomplish- 
ments, fortified with perhaps the longest, and, it may be said, 
the most trying experience in public life covering the most excit- 
ing period in our country's history. She was capable of filling 
every social position. There were few ladies in the land better 
•qualified to perform the varied and manifold duties incumbent 



John Sherman. 19 

upon the wife of so distinguished a statesman. Her judgment 
was always acute and accurate. Mr. and Mrs. Sherman for 
nearly half a century were the closest of friends and companions. 
She sanctioned what he approved ; he was gratified with what she 
enjoyed. 

It is said that when she first went to Washington, shortly 
after her marriage, that a lady of much social experience, the 
wife of a Senator from Kentucky, solemnly warned her that if 
she was seen constantly with her husband that the gossips would 
certainly talk about her. Being young and of a retiring dis- 
position, she felt it a great hardship that she could not enjoy the 
society < f her husband in public with impunity. 

Mrs. Sherman's tastes were eminently domestic. She was a 
thorough housewife. The details of her home were always her 

mal care. Mrs. Sherman was a member of Grace Episcopal 
church at Mansfield. 

Mr. Sherman built his house at Mansfield in 1849, and re- 
modeled it about thirty years afterward. It was a plain, sub- 
stantial two-story brick edifice with a mansard roof, and had a 
wide gallery at the main entrance, and was located near the cen- 
ter of twenty-odd acres of land, surrounded by a fine forest, many 
of the trees of which, particularly the buckeyes, having been 
planted by Mr. Sherman himself. The house was built on per- 
haps the highest ground in the city, on the most desirable resi- 
dence street. 

In the rear of the house was maintained a fine garden, and 
extensive grapery and quite a large orchard. There was scarcely 
a berry, fruit or vegetable, indigenous to the latitude of Ohio, 
that was not grown on these grounds, as many of the noted men 
of the country can testify from personal experience. Both Mr. 
and Mrs. Sherman gave the garden, the vineyard and the 
orchard their careful attention. In the summer, and the autumn, 
the latter was especially busy "putting up" the harvest of the 
vineyard and the orchard, and a generous quantity found its 
way to the table of the house at Washington. 

The grounds were one of the beauty spots of this section of 
the Buckeye State. The city of Mansfield sets upon as many 
gently rising hills as the Roman capital. The country round 



20 John Sherman. 

about is undulating and picturesque. When Mr. Sherman bought 
that little plat of land it was half a mile in the country. Now 
the city has grown nearly a mile beyond, to the margin of Sher- 
man-Heineman park, a fifty acre breathing place presented to 
the city of Mansfield jointly by Mr. Sherman and Mr. A. J. 
Heineman. Across Park avenue west, up and down which 
thoroughfare the electric cars now race, is the palatial home of 
the widow of another man of national fame, the late Hon. 
Michael D. Harter. once the champion of honest money in the 
House of Representatives. 

There were finer houses, more costly homes, but no nobler 
grounds than those of the Shermans. And the people were ever 
welcome to enjoy them. Each year they were the scene of fetes 
and gatherings for the benefit of the churches and the charities. 
Presidents, governors, senators, past, present and future; plain 
citizens, diplomats, editors, soldiers; politicians of high and 
Mow degree, some bent on good, others on evil, have sat upon 
the broad gallery. 

Murat Halstead was caught one day in the garden eating 
gooseberries. He explained that those berries were larger than 
any raised in Europe and not so sour. A few days afterward, 
Mr. Halstead's newspaper, in no ambiguous words, and in Hal- 
stead's inimitable style, thundered forth the policy of the party. 

Mansfield is certainly the highest city in the state. The 
Sherman house was perhaps the most elevated residence in the 
state. The town • is located on the crest of the ridge which 
stretches from the northeast corner southwesterly through Ohio. 
Waters rising four or five miles west of the town flow into the 
sea through Lake Erie, and those rising within the corporation 
empty into the ocean by way of the Ohio and the Father of 
Waters. The Sherman house was about 1450 above the sea, 
1018 above the Ohio at Cincinnati, and 885 above Lake Erie. 
The highest knobs in the state are in Logan county, 1540 feet 
above the ocean, 1108 above the Ohio and 975 above the Lake, 
and the next highest about six miles west of Mansfield, being 
I 475» I0 43 an, l OI o feet respectively above the ;ea, the river and 
the lake. 



John Sherman. 21 

The heirs of Senator Sherman in 1904 demolished the house 
and disposed of the real estate in the form of building lots. 

John Sherman's stump speeches, as everybody knows, were 
didactic. They usually read better than they sounded. Often 
he did not readily bring forth the word he sought to utter. A 
stranger listening to him for the first time, not informed of his 
abilities, would imagine, at the beginning, that he was going 
to fail. No one can justly claim for him the talent of the 
forensic orator. However, as he advanced, he might become pa- 
thetic, and often really eloquent. His speaking was not a physical 
effort. His gestures were few. His vocabulary, to be under- 
stood by the most common of the powerful average people, 
doe? not require reference to the books. His hearers came for 
instruction, not amusement. He seldom told an anecdote. The 
attention of his audience was held solely because of the wisdom 
that dropped from his lips. He always had the loyal support 
of the middle classes, the well-to-do, the prosperous farmers, the 
brain and sinew of the commonwealth. The frugal German- 
American was ever his friend. They heard, they understood, 
they acted. 

All of his speeches were carefully prepared. They were 
dictated to a stenographer, in ample time before the date of 
delivery. I have had the pleasure of seeing a great many of 
his speeches in the stenographer's long-hand after the author 
had revised them. It was very rarely that he altered a phrase 
or a word, either before the manuscript went to the printer or 
at the time of delivery. Tie spoke the same speech he had com- 
posed, almost word for word. Tt occurred more than once that 
newspaper men sought to prove that he didn't say what he had 
written. With the printed speech in hand they have followed him, 
sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, and were 
amazed at the accuracy of his memory. 

About twenty-five years ago, the beginning of the era of 
wonderful modern journalism, the press associations began to 
ask for advance copies of his key-notes. He then commenced 
the practice of having them put into type a few days prior to 



22 John Sherman. 

their delivery. Since that this custom seems to have been gen- 
erally adopted by public men. 

After he became the most potent factor in the cabinet of 
President Hayes, and it was understood that he was a candi- 
date for nomination for the presidency, the leading and most 
successful opposition newspaper in Ohio, failing to unearth 
scandal with which to drag him down, began a crusade against 
him on the frivolous score of selfishness. He was denounced 
as an icicle, and branded as the incarnation of coldness. Every 
man who met him can refute these charges. No newspaper 
man ever approached him on a news errand and left him 
chilled, unless he merited chilling. The truth is that Mr. Slier-, 
man was of easier access to the press and the people than, 
perhaps, any other distinguished man at Washington. 

Senator Sherman's campaign speeches often sparkled with 
original axioms, simple and trenchant. Once, after he had 
made a noted effort, a gentleman compiled and brought to me 
over half a hundred sentences of that character, but a small 
per centum of which was made up of more than fifteen words. 
Some of them were used as the mottoes of the campaign. 

There are few great men who can, or do, confine them- 
selves to as limited a vocabulary when addressing the public. 
This was one, doubtless, of the reasons for his popularity with 
the average common people. They heard, or read ; they under- 
stood, they approved. 

When it is remembered that his education in youth was 
limited to about six years, in the schools of the frontier, and 
that his learning was acquired chiefly by observation, reading, 
and reflection, a study of this subject ought certainly to be 
interesting. 

To illustrate: His speech delivered at the Ohio Repub- 
lican State Convention at Zanesville in May, 1895, tne ^ ast 
great effort meant to define the policy of the party, was brief — 
composed, eliminating the proper nouns and figures, of about 
sixteen hundred and thirty words. There were substantially 
three subjects, with which he was more familiar than with anv 
other three questions, and with which no man in America was, 



John Sherman. 



23 



perhaps, more familiar, viz: a retrospect of his party's achieve- 
ments ; the tariff question ; the money issue. 

Break this speech into its component parts. We find he used 
532 words to express the ideas evolved, employing- each one 
an average of more than three times; and that a large per 
centum of the 532 words were of the same root, varied as 
verbs, adverbs or nouns. More .than one thousand of the words 
spoken were monosyllables, and over 350 were dissyllables. He 
employed no word beginning with J, H or Z, while K loaned 
him but one, Q two, Y only three, and V two; thus confining 
himself, almost exclusively, to words from but 19 letters of 
the alphabet. He repeated the adjective "the" 145 times, the 
preposition "of" 109 times, the conjunction "and" 59 times, 
"in" 46 times, "is" 34 times, "a" 28, "we" 29, and so on. He 
employed 90 words twice, thirty-odd thrice, and a great many 
others oftener. On that occasion, at least, he was partial to the 
letters T and P, because he drew on the columns of the former 
for thirty to express 266 thoughts, and on the latter for 72 with 
which to voice 130. 

The ninth letter of the alphabet was uttered as a pronoun 
of the first person ten times, but not once egotistically, as the 
context clearly proves. 

It was not necessary, in order to understand Mr. Sherman's 
meaning, to refer to a glossary, or consult an up-to-date dialect 
lexicon. Every word of the speech can be found in the earliest 
English dictionary. 

Following is a complete alphabetical list of the words used 
in the Zanesville speech with the number of times used: 



60-and 
28-a 
i5-all 
11-as 

8-are 

7-at 

4-an 

4-any 

3-action 

2-also 



2-alone 


already 


2-amount 


always 


2-adopt 


among 


abroad 


ample 


act 


announce 


accomplished 


annually 


after 


anywhere 


additional 


another 


admitting 


appeal 


adopted 


applied 


ages 


articles- 



24 



John Sherman. 



ascending 


2-contracted 


4- 


-debt 


assigned 


2-chief 


2- 


-duty 


assurance 


2-condition 


2- 


-duties 


available 


-'-credit 


2 


-did 




2 common 


2- 


-during 
-dollar 


36 words used 173 


2-currency 


•). 


times. 


called 


9. 


-dollars 




j cannot 


9. 


-declared 


B. 


capital 


2- 


-demand 


11 -be 


carefully 


2 


-domestic 


9-but 


carried 




daily 


9-by 


carry 




death 


•'-been 


cents 




dead 


3- he fore 


choice 




declare 


3-believe 


cheapening 




degradation 


2-based 


civil 




demanded 


2-both 


citizens 




denomination 


2 lii-metallic 


coined 




dem iimce 


back 


coining 




designate 


hank 


concert 




deserving 


battle 


confer 




diminished 


bearer 


conferred 




discharged 


bearing 


confessedly 




discipline 


belong 


c< mfess 




disposed 


beneficial 


conditions 




disturbed 


beyond 


congratulate 




developed 


bands 


congress 




diversified 


brothers 
bulk 


com m 

commission 




demonetization 






bullion 


C( immodities 


30 


words used 57 




composed 




times. 






21 words used 56 


cooperate 






times. 


copy 




E. 




corner 


5- 


-every 


C. 


creed 


3- 


-each 


•"> country 


courage 


2 


-either 


1 candidate 


course 




3-equal 


4-coin 


court 




equally 


4-commercial 


current 




equality 


4— convention 






effected 


3-can 


• r )0 words used 80 




enemies 


3-change 


times. 




entirely 


2-coins 






elect 


2-coinage 


D. 




elected 


2-cheaper 


2-debts 




election 


"2-could 


3-do 




especially 



John Sherman. 



25. 



erring 


2-governor 


influence 


ever 


get 


intelligence 


exchange' 


generally 


intelligent 


executive 


gentlemen 


interest 


extended 


greatly 


interests 


excess 




impartial 








- 8 words used 33 


impartially 




20 words used 29 


times. 


importance 


times. 




impress 




H. 


invited 


F. 


16— li3.vc 




18-for 


7-has 


28 words used 151 


9-from 


6-had 


times. 


4-favor 


4-honor 




2-faith 


4-hope 


J- 


2-farm 


3-high 


None. 


2-first 


2-highest 




2-forever 


2-hearty 


K. 


2-free 
2-fail 


2-honestly 
hardship 


2-kind 




2-fixed 


here 


1 word used 2 


faithfully 


home 


tinn-s. 


fall 


'hotch-potch 




false 




L. 


farms 


13 words used 51 


3-labor 


favors 


times. 


3-large 


fate 




3-last 


fifty 


I. 


B-low 


firm 


46-in 


2-lowest 


flag 


34-is 


2-let 


follow 


16-it 


larger 


forty 


10-1 


largely 


fourteen 


7-if 


lay 


force 


7-its 


lead 


foreign 


3-international 


legal 


fractional 


3-industries 


life 


friends 


2-increase 


like 


fundamental 


2-indispensable 


limited 




2-important 
2-issues 


limitation 


27 words used 62 


limits 


times 


2-into 


logical 




increases 


love 


G. 


industry 
including 




11-great 


18 words used 28 


8-gold 


indicate 


times. 


4-good 


indivisible 





M 



John Sherman. 



M. 


no 


2-perform 




nominally 


2-preside 


8-money 




2-president 




4-matters 


14 words used 37 


2-pension 


4-metals 


times. 


2-platform 


2-made 




2-purpose 


2-maintain 


0. 


2-parts 


3-market 


109-of 


2-par 


2-me 


10-only 


2-present 


2-mankind 


9-or 


2-prosperity 


2-measured 


8-on 


2-protection 


3-more 


6-our 


part 


maintained 


2-own 


partially 


maintaining 


2-over 


passing 


make 


2-other 


peanuts 


making 


2-one 


pittance 


many 


2-one-half 


poverty 


may 


2-obligations 


prefer 


men 


2-officers 


preserve 


members 


2-old 


pretense 


means 


offers 


privileges 


meet 


opinions 


principle 


met 


opposed 


parties 


metal 


orphans 


paid 


measure 


ours 


patriotic 


mine 


outside 


pensioners 


minor 




planted 
powers 


most 


18 words used 164 


monometallic 


times. 


precisely 






preserving 


27 words used 44 


P. 


prior 


times. 


13-party 


produce 




10-policy 


past 


N. 


5-power 


parity 


8-not 


4-principles 


paper 


5-nations 


4-productions 


pathway 


4-now 


3-people 


performed 


3-notes 


3-production 


portion 


2-nation 


3-price 


praise 


"2-nominate 


3-purchasing 


prescribing 


need 


3-pay 


preservation 


next 


3-payments 


primary 


nearly 


3-public 


produces 


new 


2-plenty 


proper 


necessary 


2-produces 


properly 



John Sherman. 



27 



promise 


S. 


success 


promised 


14-silver 


supplied 


promote 


4-should 


supreme 


propose 


4-standard 


system 


proposition 


2-stand 






protecting 


2-selecting 


48 words used 84 


protective 


sacred 


times. 


provided 


sanction 




provincial 


scheme 


T. 


purchased 


section 




purposes 


seek 


145-the 


purchases 


sentiment 


28-to 




shrieks 
silent 


14-this 

11-that 


72 words used 130 


times. 


single 


11-them 




slaves 


9-their 


Q. 


specie 


8-those 




same 


t)-they 


quantity 


stamp 


5-than 


quantities 


still 


5-tariff 




Stone 

subjects 


2-th ere 
2-these 


2 words used 2 


times. 


superior 


2-then 




>ums 


2-transaction 


R. 


surviving 


tax 


6-ratio 


8-state 


taxation 


3-roll 


4-soldiers 


today 


2-redemption 


4-such 


together 


2-repudiation 


2-small 


taken 


rather 


2-support 


tender 


rational 


same 


temptations 


redeemable 


say 


therefore 


reduced 


secure 


thank 


reliance 


selection 


think 


repealed 


senator 


through 


rest 


several 


time 


result 


since 


treat 


revenue 


similar 


trust 


right 


skilled 


turning 


rights 


spite 


two 


reform 


so 






resumption 


sound 


30 words used 266 




staple 


times. 






17 words used 26 


stood 




times. 


storms 





28 



John Sherman. 



u. 


2-what 


Z. 


5-upon 


2-who 


None. 


4-us 


2-whole 




3-under 


2-world 


Proper nouns 


3-Union 


2-wool 




unabridged 


2-workshops 


Atlantic 


unblemished 


waits 


J -American 


unskilled 


want 


Australia 


use 


ways 


Democrat 


united 


well 


2-Democratic 


until 


weight 


Europe 


universal 


were 


2-Grant 


utilized 


whether 


Lincoln 


unquestioned 


whose 


Mexico 


urged 


within 


2-McKinley 




whiskey 


North 




14 words used 25 


wish 


6-Ohio 


times. 


wisdom 


Populists 




widows 


12-Republican 


V. 


worthy 


5-Republicans 


value 


woolen 


2-Sherman 


various 


workingman 


Sheridan 




V 


South 

United States 
Wilderness 


2 words used 7 
times. 


™ wnoever 


33 words used 112 




times. 




w. 


20 words used 45 


29-we 


X. 


times. 


15-will 


None. 




10-war 




Figures. 


8-was 


Y. 


1855 


4-with 


11-you 


1873 


4-while 


your 


1892 


4-would 


years 


$50,003,000 


3— wants 




6 words used 6 
times. 


3-wages 


3 words used 14 


3-which 


times. 





Note — The figures to the left of words indicate the number of 
times they were used. The remaining words were used once only. 
* * * * 

The story has been related many times at Mansfield by 
the old citizens that in early life he made a rule to lay aside 
out of his earnings $500 a year. No matter what his income 



John Sherman. 29 

might be his expenditures were regulated accordingly. Thus 
was laid the foundation of his competency. Those who were 
best informed know that a political life, at least in the latter 
part of it. had been a detriment to him, from a money-getting 
standpoint. Twice he reluctantly became a candidate for re- 
election to the Senate, and then only at the last hour, and be- 
cause of the earnest urging on the part of leading citizens 
throughout the land. In this day of frenzied office seeking this 
may cause some to marvel, bur it is nevertheless true. 

When less than thirty years of age Mr. Sherman took a 
deep interest in the projected Ohio railways, particularly those 
subsequently built through the northern part of the state. At 
his death he was actively interested in the Fort Wayne road. 
Later in life, and when one of his terms as Senator was about 
to expire, he was offered the presidency of one of the greatest 
railway corporations in America, the Northern Pacific, at a 
salary many times that of a United States Senator. 

* * * * 

Mr. Sherman frequently told, with pleasure, of his first 
meeting with Mr. Lincoln. It occurred at Willard's hotel in 
the month of February, 1861. Mr. Sherman called upon the 
president-elect immediately after his arrival. Lincoln grasped 
Ins hand and said : 

"So you are John Sherman?" 

He inspected the tall Buckeye from crown to sole. 

"Well, I'm taller than you, anyway; let's measure." 

They got their backs together. Mr. Sherman said that 
Lincoln was considerably the taller. 

* * * * 

After a score or more of years have matured my judgment, 
I want to relate the following incident : 

It happened one morning that I was in Mr. Sherman's K 
street library at Washington, when a gentleman came in and 
said : 

"Senator, the President has sent William Howard Taft's 
name to the Senate."* 



*The office was that of Internal Revenue Collector 



30 • John Sherman. 

With the impertinence of youth, I remarked, 

"Mr. Sherman, you would not have recommended Taft 
if he had not been the son of his father." 

Quickly, and heatedly, came the reply: 

"That is not so, Taft is a capable young man; he will make 
his mark." 




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